Budding Industry: How Legal Marijuana Trade Affects Canada

By
UBC News
on July 17, 2014

A UBC expert says legal marijuana shops in nearby Washington state puts pressure on B.C. and Canada to re-think its cannabis laws

The first legal recreational marijuana shops have opened in Washington state, including two stores in Bellingham, a short drive from the U.S.-Canada border. Zach Walsh, an assistant professor in the Dept. of Psychology at UBC’s Okanagan campus and co-director for the Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science and Law, discusses how the industry could impact cannabis laws on both sides of the 49th parallel.

What are the challenges Washington state faces with the legalization and licensing of retail marijuana stores?

The biggest challenge will likely be providing sufficient product to meet demand. At least at the start, there seem to be relatively few producers and distributors that have cleared all the regulatory hurdles. The vast majority of consumers are already accessing cannabis from the illegal market and if they face substantial barriers to access–long lines, rationing–they may simply continue to use existing sources. Colorado, which relied more heavily on its existing medical cannabis infrastructure, seems to have been somewhat better prepared on the supply side.